YAKIMA, Wash.- The Washington Department of Transportation is reworking its Travel Washington Intercity Bus Program Plan after 2019’s plan was stalled in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
WSDOT is traveling across the state to hear from different communities about what improvements passengers would like to see, and what they know already.
“We talked to hundreds of people, and I would say maybe 50% of them were really not familiar with inner city bus service at all,” says WSDOT Consultant Maris Fry.
Fry adds that part of the sessions is to tell people about the intercity buses and how they can work for you. At the station with multiple workshops to demonstrate and collect information about the services, Fry’s area highlighted different reasons someone could use the buses to their benefit.
“We really wanted to get at different demographics, different communities, different reasons people travel and use intercity buses,” says Fry. We have people accessing medical facilities, trying to visit family, going to a job interview, just traveling for recreation. These are really representative of different stories that people have and the way they use the services.”
WSDOT is still in Phase 1 of the project: Understanding Intercity Bus Service Gaps. After meetings with different regions in Washington, it will move to proposals and a final plan to improve the system.
Currently, the project is focused on improving accessibility, equity and safety. WSDOT emphasized in Monday’s meeting in Yakima, it plans to connect to rural areas to provide access for every part of the state.
The Intercity Bus Program has five more meetings planned to talk with the community, including one on June 18 in Pullman before virtual sessions beginning June 26.
A survey is also available to take online.
